Reef Angel Forum

Is the WP40 Pump permanently gone from the store or is it just temporarily out of stock?

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Let me guess, Tunze is conducting an intimidation campaign based around their design patent (D567821). If that's all they have to assert, I hope you'll at least leave the Jebao adapter cable up for sale.

-- A patent attorney.

Seriously, there's nothing illegal about selling a cable that connects a standard DIN to a cat5.

The cable is still in the store from my view...

So it is -- I would swear it wasn't there a minute ago, but cables do all look pretty similar.

jerry27 wrote:Youre right. Its available on the order page but not shown on the products page.

just read on another site that tunze has blocked there importation effective today. patent violations.

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It would be more accurate to say that Tunze has sent letters to the US-based vendors of which they are aware, threatening to sue them for selling the WP-40, and ALLEGING that they 1) have a valid US patent for the ORNAMENTAL DESIGN of their pump(s), and that 2) the WP-40 is similar enough that they believe they would be able to convince a COURT OF LAW to block the importation of Jaebo's pump(s).

Unless someone is aware of a lawsuit that has been brought to a conclusion in Tunze's favor, all that's happened so far is bullying.

Thankfully, there is an EASY FIX. Tunze has a design patent on the ORNAMENTAL DESIGN (not, explicitly not, on the functionality) of their pumps. Jebao would just have to change the housing of the WP-40 slightly, and they're free and clear.

It can be bullying but do you also agree that no one would go to court with Tunze for a product that doesn't even belong to them?
Why waste all the effort and money to fight for a product that you are only making a few bucks?
The end user is the one that will ultimately suffer from this and it will just create a black market for the pumps.
I did hear however that Jebao is working on a design change.

rimai wrote:It can be bullying but do you also agree that no one would go to court with Tunze for a product that doesn't even belong to them?
Why waste all the effort and money to fight for a product that you are only making a few bucks?
The end user is the one that will ultimately suffer from this and it will just create a black market for the pumps.
I did hear however that Jebao is working on a design change.

As a patent attorney, I absolutely agree (and would recommend to any small client that I represented) that the easiest and lowest-risk response to a threat letter like this is to comply. Even if you're entirely in the right, you don't want to bear the cost of a patent suit (although if they were foolish enough to file one as blatantly unsupportable as any based on their design patent would be, a defendant could probably win AND recover their legal fees).

One step shy of compliance might be a request for more information, though. I'd want to see their analysis of which EXCLUSIVELY ORNAMENTAL features of the WP-40 correspond to the EXCLUSIVELY ORNAMENTAL features of their design patent, since a design patent provides NO PROTECTION for those features which are functional (e.g., water inlet slits in a cage surrounding an impeller seem pretty darn functional to me).

Here comes the typical attorney disclaimer - this is explicitly not legal advice nor do we have an attorney/client relationship. :-/ Man, it sucks being an attorney, and having to type crap like that.

"f the patented design is primarily functional rather than ornamental, the patent is invalid. However, when the design also contains ornamental aspects, it is entitled to a design patent whose scope is limited to those aspects alone and does not extend to any functional elements of the claimed article." Richardson v. Stanley Works, Inc. 597 F. 3d 1288, 1294 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 9, 2010) (internal citations omitted).

Roberto is obviously way to smart to step into that pile of doo doo.

I wonder how tunze is gonna explain a few years of the korillas being on the US market yet no cry of foul..if they are arguing on the shape as a patent., they all look like wiffle balls with mini trolling motors in the middle. Trolling motors are selling for less than a Benjamin brand new and run on 12v DC, and have a few more parts, shipping costs than any of these A Cheap dc prop pump is not gonna cease to exist.

I guess that means more sales for Fish-Street since I doubt the Chinese could care less.

--Colin

Wow, Tunze means business! They retained a lawyer (Murray W. Camp) from the 140th best-ranked law school in the country (just this side of "unranked") to bully this small business! Go Tunze!

Also, if a lawyer offers to help you preserve evidence by making a backup of your hard drives for you, DECLINE.

Just don't delete any emails or destroy any records. You don't have to let them go on a fishing expedition through your business records, and they're a slimeball to "strongly advise you to contact" them to discuss doing so.

Roberto, consider talking to a California-based attorney regarding California Business and Professions Code §§ 17200-17210 (relating to unfair competition and anti-competitive practices). If Tunze is sending a threat letter in bad faith, with no intention to actually file suit (given that their design patent is quite possibly invalid -- see quote above), they're the ones who might be breaking the law. Their Texas-based counsel may not be familiar with California's laws in this area.

This kind of thing happenes all the time in the model airplane enviroment, many times the company sending the threat letters pays the price by lost sales.

we are talking about a german company harasing a US company over a asian product.. sounds fishy (pun intended)

but it is always best to comply while the big boys fight it out. like roberto said his profit per item is not worth his time or lose of sleep.

Wow I got mine just in time then

coolbird wrote:Wow I got mine just in time then

On second thoughts does this mean no discussion on running these pumps with an RA, now that would not be good news